beamerfontspdftex
I prepare slides using Beamer and PDFLaTeX. The command I use to run PDFLaTeX is the default AUCTeX command:
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode "\input" <INPUT_FILE>
The slides look fine on my screen at my default resolution (1360×768), but if I have to step down the resolution (e.g., to 640×480) when I connect to a projector, they look aliased and blurry. Probably this has something to do with the kinds of fonts that are being used, but I don't know how to fix it. Any suggestions?
The method I selected was basically what I outlined in my question:
I write my beamer slides for class with the aspectratio=169 option. The projector in the room has a 4:3 aspect ratio but the letterboxing is not a noticeable issue for projection If anything it makes the slides easier to see since students in the back don't have the bottom of the screen cut off.
It is a noticeable issue for me, as I spend a lot of time rearranging slides laid out in 4:3. Also they've asked for much bigger font sizes than I normally use (72pt+ font size for the slide title?? I can't come anywhere near that close and have more than two words), but I'm working the best I can within their guidelines
For the post-production version with margins I use a pgfpages layout:
\pgfpagesdeclarelayout{NYU Open Ed margins}{}{%
\pgfpagesphysicalpageoptions{%
logical pages=1,%
physical height=7.5in,
physical width=10in
}
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{1}{%
scale=1.27,
center=\pgfpoint{5in}{4.25in}
}
}
That gives a 10in x 7.5in (4:3) slide with 1in margins on top, left, and right, and 2in on the bottom. After subtracting these margins, the printable region has aspect ratio 16:9—a pretty lucky coincidence.
Then I use PDF2Keynote (free) to convert the PDF, and open it in Keynote to save as PowerPoint.
Try looking through the LaTeX Font Catalogue. For example, Bitstream charter and palatino are both thicker than the default computer modern.
For example, to use a palatino font you could add the following to your preamble:
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}
\linespread{1.05} % Palatino needs more leading (space between lines)
mathdesign provides some good fonts, but awkwardly they are incompatible with some ams packages. (They do provide alternatives though, so they might be an option).
Or you could try \usepackage{fouriernc} as Leo Liu suggested in the comments.
Here's another way to get a really thick font for text and maths.
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\renewcommand\rmdefault{cmfib}
\usepackage{mathastext}
This uses Computer Modern Fibonacci and the mathastext package to make it use the text font for basic maths. The problem with this approach is that it might make the maths symbols (\sum etc) look rather thin in comparison...
Best Answer
It depends on the fonts you're using. If you use the standard Computer Modern fonts but T1 font encoding, it may already help to install the cm-super package and recompile. There's no change in your tex file needed. cm-super contains Computer Modern fonts with T1 support.
Or switch to another T1 supporting font like lmodern, which is very similar to the standard font.
\usepackage{lmodern}could be sufficient.